The initial public offering of the Sri Lankan unit of Indian Oil Corp was oversubscribed more than three times. "The IPO raised (Sri Lankan) Rs 359.99 crore (Rs 3.59 billion)," company officials said.

The sale of a 25 per cent stake will make Lanka IOC the fourth-biggest stock on the Colombo bourse when it starts trading in December.

Lanka IOC issued 133.33 million shares in the price band of Rs 23 to 27. "Most of the shares were subscribed in the upper price band," he said.

The stake sale will fund expansion of Lanka IOC's fuel outlets, renovate an oil tank farm and build a lubricant plant.

Lanka IOC, which has 150 petrol stations island-wide, broke the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp's (Ceypetco) monopoly when the petroleum sector was liberalised in 2003.

The main objective of the IPO was to raise money for an expansion in the retail oil distribution market with an injection of about $35 million, an IOC spokesperson said.

Lanka IOC enjoys a 10-year tax holiday in Sri Lanka. All its capital goods imports are also duty free.